The construction season started with the “plan for the year” (of which blog followers are aware of – if you have forgotten reread “the far side” entry from last Sept) and this drawing. I posted a want ad on Kijiji and did then I did some price checking as we anticipate having the scaffolding for quite some time. Then I used my new iPhone 4s from the Queen’s Garden at Royal University Hospital (while on my lunch break) to call Chinook Scaffolding. I’m loving my new phone and am glad that Ron got tired of fixing my Blackberry roller! I’m learning things every day with it which is important at “my age”! They delivered, right on schedule, on Friday am so Ron and I could help unload. We then organized it along the length of the house and got out wood bases. Then we spent the rest of the day doing the other big job for the long weekend in May (story later).Bright and early Saturday morning we commenced building. Nice this year to have screw jacks for leveling as it made that part of the job so much easier but it was still challenging as we wanted to be as close to the building as possible and yet we had to make it by the bay window roof lines.And we built – super awesome that Spencer could give us 2 mornings on the weekend to give us a HUGE helping hand. This allowed me to stay at “base camp” and tie up the supplies for them to hoist up.And the we built a little bit more. It was nice that the weather held and the wind wasn’t too crazy on the three mornings that it took us to build. And we continued to build after Ron secured it to the building so that it’s more stable plus we added outriggers with screw jacks for additional stability which is really nice.And then finally we were finished. We have a heck of a view of the country side as you can see from this picture! I believe it is about 42 rungs to the top of the monkey bars – by the end of this side I’ll be able to tell you for sure. The nice thing is – this is the complex side and the other two sides aren’t as tall or as complex so it’s clear sailing once this side is complete.AND THEN Ron got to rip down the first piece of 1980’s vinyl trim!! Yeah!! I would have ripped off the whole section but we had to go on to a different job (another blog entry coming up soon!). The dogs will have to figure out to stay back when we are up there so as not to get hit by flying pieces.I just threw this picture in here to give a concept to the height aspect. I guess if you are afraid of heights this isn’t the summer job for you!! We are already talking about how to cut the wood up there etc to decrease the number of trips up and down.In reference to the title of this blog entry – wind chimes are essentially assorted sizes and shapes of tubes which the wind goes through – they are usually vertical but the principle works horizontally as well. So for the remainder of the summer our little bit of peace and quiet won’t be so quiet when the wind is present!!
And then the weekend was over! But we have a plan of attack and 12 weeks to complete this complex side so stay tuned.
Bernie and Ron